


Practice Makes...

by travelingpsycho



Category: Johnny's Entertainment, Kanjani8 (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-20
Updated: 2011-01-20
Packaged: 2017-10-31 18:58:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/347348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/travelingpsycho/pseuds/travelingpsycho
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Subaru and Ryo work very hard at writing a song together, among other things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Practice Makes...

**Author's Note:**

  * For [spurious](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spurious/gifts).



When it's decided that Ryo and Subaru are going to be working together this time around, they're both understandably wary. They don't want another Glorious, but the prospect of writing something together is intimidating. Even if they're not the awkward pair anymore (really, they're not), writing a song together is different than just talking. It's something personal for both of them, and it's asking a lot to share that when they're not entirely comfortable (okay, still awkward) together.

The teasing starts immediately, as expected. "Are you sure you can handle this?" Yoko asks. "You'll actually have to talk to each other, you know."

"Worry about yourself first," Subaru retorts, eyeing Yoko and Hina. "You'll actually have to sing together, you know." That shuts Yoko up for the time being, though Hina just laughs.

"Let me know if I can help," Yasu offers more kindly. He's got it easy this time, though he seems more disappointed than relieved.

"We'll be fine," Ryo says, a little grumpy. He's worried, but that doesn't mean he likes everyone else implying that he and Subaru can't do a unit song together.

"Yeah," Subaru agrees. He waits until Yasu leaves them alone to ask, half joking, "Are we going to be fine?"

"Of course!" It's obvious Ryo's trying to convince himself, but he does mean it, mostly. Why wouldn't they be fine?

 

A few weeks later, they're feeling a lot less confident. It's not so much that they've failed to come up with anything as they haven't really tried, finding one excuse after another (some more legitimate than others) to put off planning their duet. They know they want to write something, but that's about as far as they've gotten.

It's Ohkura who suggests they sit together on the shinkansen to give them a chance to work, fed up with their procrastination in the way he sometimes gets when he's not the lazy one. He's not being entirely serious, but the others jump on the idea immediately, Maru trading his ticket with a protesting Ryo and Hina smacking Subaru when he whines that he wanted to sleep on the train ride.

Once they're on the train, silence descends. "So..." Ryo starts.

There's a long pause before Subaru stretches and says in a deliberately casual tone, "Man, what did we do before we got nice seats like this?"

"Remember how sometimes we couldn't get seats at all?" Ryo asks

Subaru nods. "That sucked."

"I don't know," Ryo says. "It was kind of fun sometimes, all of us hanging out on the deck and talking and stuff." He smiles at the memory, and is pleased to see Subaru mirror his smile. He may not feel totally comfortable with Subaru, but they have a long history in common.

They drag out the reminiscing for a while, glad to have something to talk about, before Subaru asks, "Want to write a song about that?"

By the time they reach their destination, they have two pages of scribbled lyrics, a warm feeling of nostalgia, and surprisingly little awkwardness as they reflect on how they got to where they are, together. It feels good.

 

With not much time left before the start of concerts, they get together to practice so they won't embarrass themselves on stage. It's weird just the two of them, so they have the brilliant idea to start drinking. After a few drinks, they feel more comfortable, but they also get very little done, finally setting aside their guitars when even the most basic chords seem too complicated. They still have the music sheets in front of them, but they're not paying nearly as much attention to them as they should be, more interested in drinking and making idle conversation about the song and the upcoming tour.

It's fine at first, but then Ryo's mouth starts to run away from him, making him regret breaking out the alcohol. When he's sober, he knows when to keep his mouth shut. When he gets drunk enough, he finds himself saying things like, "I used to have, like, a crush on you when we were younger."

" _Like_ a crush?" Subaru asks.

Ryo backtracks as fast as he can. "Not a real crush. I thought you were really cool. I wanted to be like you. That kind of thing. I was just thinking about it since we were talking about back then."

"Oh," Subaru says. "That's all." Ryo thinks for a second that he sounds disappointed, but that would be crazy. He's obviously not thinking straight now.

"I don't know why I called it a crush," he continues, babbling to fill the silence even though he knows it's a bad idea. "It wasn't anything like that. Not like—"

"Ryo?" Subaru cuts in.

"Yeah?" Ryo's brain is catching up to his mouth now and he's feeling really embarrassed. It's not fair that being alone with Subaru always gets him like this.

"You should probably stop talking." Subaru looks embarrassed too, but more amused than anything else. "Unless you want me to get the wrong idea."

"The wrong idea?" The words are out of Ryo's mouth too fast for him to stop himself.

Subaru hesitates, but teasing wins out over embarrassment. "I might think you still have a crush on me," he jokes.

Now the only thing worse than word vomit in terms of the potential embarrassment factor happens: Ryo finds himself suddenly tongue tied, unable to come up with any reasonable response to that. Subaru looks at him, first amused, then curious, then uncertain. "What?" he asks slowly. "Do you?"

Ryo wants to deny it, frantically searching for the right words to explain that no, he doesn't have any feelings like that for Subaru, and he never really did anyway. It's not like that, even if he can't explain what it _is_ like. He has every intention of denying it, but what comes out of his mouth is some incoherent mumbling that ends with, "Maybe a little bit."

Subaru seems to be at a loss for words too now, so for a long moment, they just sit in silence, staring at opposite corners of the room. Ryo mentally curses his mouth for acting without his permission, for saying things that aren't even true because he doesn't feel like that anymore. Right?

Except that he still thinks Subaru's cool, if not in quite the same way he used to, and he still looks up to him even though they're more like equals now, and he might find him kind of attractive with his hair short and messy and...

"Shit," Ryo says out loud. Subaru looks startled, so he quickly mumbles an apology. "Sorry. It's just, I, well, umm..."

"Have a crush?" Subaru supplies helpfully. There's nothing about his tone or expression to clue Ryo in to what he thinks of this, leaving him hoping he hasn't hopelessly screwed up their already awkward friendship.

"It's not really, it's just, I think, I, you...fuck," Ryo finishes. He can't even get his thoughts straight on the matter, let alone his words.

"If you want," Subaru says lightly.

Ryo splutters incoherently at that. "What?" he finally manages.

Subaru doesn't seem to be joking anymore, though Ryo still can't tell what he's thinking. "If you wanted to do something about that crush, I wouldn't say no."

There are a great many reasons why this is a bad idea, or at least why they should talk about it more first, not the least of which is that they're about to start a tour where they'll have to perform a duet every concert with no one around to save them from their awkwardness. But none of those reasons seems to be enough to stop because before Ryo knows what's happening, he's kissing Subaru, or Subaru is kissing him; it doesn't matter who started it.

Subaru holds nothing back, all but throwing himself on top of Ryo and kissing him hungrily. All possible childhood crushes aside, Subaru's a good kisser, less for technique than for enthusiasm that leaves Ryo breathless and clutching at his arms.

Ryo's already down to a tank top, so it's easy for Subaru to get his hands under and tug it off. He gives Ryo a half smirk before lowering his lips to Ryo's neck then nipping at his collarbones, drawing gasps from Ryo before he moves further down to tease a nipple with his tongue. Ryo's content to lie back and let him do what he wants, Subaru's mouth and hands on his skin distracting him from wondering what they're doing. He doesn't want to think right now.

And even if he wanted to, he wouldn't be able to once Subaru's hands find their way to his belt, making quick work of it and then his pants. He's not subtle, palming Ryo's erection through his underwear, grinding his hand down until Ryo's hips jerk up against him. He's smirking again, apparently enjoying himself as he tugs Ryo's pants and underwear out of the way. He doesn't say anything, just, still smirking, bends down and licks at the tip of Ryo's cock, drawing a full-body shudder from him.

"You like that?" Subaru murmurs, not waiting for a response before he does it again, more slowly. Maybe it should feel stranger than it does, Subaru doing rather obscene-looking things with his tongue, but mostly Ryo thinks it's just hot. It doesn't surprise him somehow that Subaru's good at this, teasing all over with his tongue before finally wrapping his lips tight around Ryo's cock.

Ryo's fingers scrabble at the floor, looking for something to hold on to as Subaru swallows him down. He's done teasing now, lips sliding quickly along sensitive skin, taking him in deep. Ryo has a fleeting thought about not letting Subaru hurt his throat, but he forgets about it completely when Subaru hums low in his throat, the vibration sending shivers up his spine. Subaru's not holding him down and it takes all of Ryo's self-control not to thrust up for more as he feels himself getting close, hands threading through his own hair to have something to cling to. Subaru isn't moving quite fast enough, dragging it out until Ryo's really desperate before swallowing him down to the base. Ryo cries out in surprise, all the warning he gives before he comes, Subaru sucking hard to draw every last bit of toe-curling pleasure out of his orgasm.

Subaru pulls back as soon as he's done, but Ryo stays where he is, hands half covering his face. He can't be bothered to feel embarrassed right now, so it's more that he doesn't want to move, feeling pleasantly drained. He wouldn't mind taking a nap right where he is, but of course Subaru doesn't approve, poking him in the side when he stays like that for too long. "Hey," he whines. "No fair."

There's something about Subaru whining that's just so _normal_ that Ryo can't feel self-conscious. He sits up with some effort, grinning at Subaru's pout. "One second." He kicks off his pants because it's easier than putting them back on, then turns his attention to Subaru. He's still fully dressed except that his pants are undone and there's a very obvious bulge showing through his underwear. "Hmm..." Ryo says, smirking to match Subaru's earlier one.

"Just because we were talking about when we were kids doesn't mean you have to channel how much of a brat you were back then," Subaru grumbles, though he seems amused under the grumpiness. "Get on with it."

Ryo's not really trying to be mean (and he's not brave enough to really tease Subaru), so he gets on with it, getting Subaru out of his pants and then pulling him in for a kiss as he wraps a hand around his neglected erection. Subaru moans appreciatively as Ryo starts to move his hand, spurring him on. Now it feels a little strange, Subaru practically in his lap and moaning against his mouth as Ryo pulls him off, but not enough to make him stop. This is not the time to be awkward.

It's easy to make Subaru fall apart, maybe because he's been waiting. Ryo nibbles at his jaw, hearing Subaru moan in his ear, feeling him push into his hand. He's murmuring encouragement, the words less important than the steady stream of sound telling Ryo that he's doing something right. He knows Subaru's getting close when the words melt into incoherent moaning and he picks up the pace, pulling back enough to watch the way Subaru's face twists up just before he comes with a heavy moan.

Subaru slumps in Ryo's hold when he's done, head falling onto his shoulder. Ryo feels a little like running away, but it's not really an option with Subaru sitting on him. "Umm..." he starts, hoping Subaru hasn't decided to take a nap on him.

"Give me a sec," Subaru mumbles. To Ryo's relief, he does get up quickly, sitting a relatively safe distance away, but he starts studying Ryo thoughtfully.

"What?" Ryo asks, trying not to squirm.

Whatever Subaru's thinking, he shrugs it off, shaking his head. "We didn't get much practicing done," he says.

Ryo laughs, if a little sheepishly. "We can fake it."

"Good." Apparently that's enough for Subaru because he relaxes, sprawling out on his back, and they don't even pretend they're going to practice anymore.

 

The day of their first concert, the others fuss obnoxiously over Ryo and Subaru, especially after their rehearsal is a bit of a mess. It's not that they don't know what they're doing at all, but they're not fully prepared and there's a whole new dimension to their awkwardness right now that makes it hard to concentrate on the song.

"What have you been doing all this time?" Hina lectures them. "I thought you practiced the other day."

Ryo and Subaru exchange a knowing look, and there's something about Subaru's impish smile that makes Ryo want to start laughing. He only just manages to hold it in, which is good because he doesn't want to have to explain to Hina why that's so funny. "We did," Subaru says, managing to keep a straight face. "We'll get it together for the real thing."

In the end, the performance isn't bad, even if they need their music sheets and stumble a bit over the words and don't quite look at each other when they're on stage. Ryo feels a little guilty, knowing they could've done better if they really tried, and a little embarrassed, like someone watching might know what they got up to instead of practicing like they should have.

But then as they leave the stage, Subaru finally meets his eyes and gives Ryo a smirk that reminds him of just what kept them from practicing and somehow he can't bring himself to care.


End file.
